As wrong as Moll Bell?

noddyflavin

Does anybody know the origins of the saying; 'As wrong as Moll Bell'?...

kfallon

Or the origins of "You're not going out like that, looking like Moll Feck"!

CardBordWindow

After Hours, as far as I know.

prinz

I believe its first recorded usage was in early 2012, by one noddyflavin character.

John Doe1

in 12th century scotland, a young lady named molly bell shat herself and thus "as wrong as moll bell"

Source: Encycolpedia Brittanica

--Kaiser--

Cockney rhyming slang for hell, perhaps?

strobe

There was a chick called Molly Bell that disguised herself as a dude to fight for the Confederacy during the American civil war. Maybe it originated from that. A girl dressing like a man and fighting in a war was really wrong so the phrase 'as wrong as Molly Bell' came into popular use and the 'Y' got lost somewhere along the lines...

But no, I don't know, just guessing.

Sindri

I think it means, Moll, I believe it is travelling slang, or so my mother told me for a woman. And bell is a euphemism for copulation. But not really.

Moll could be short for Molly and in Australia Moll means a sexually promiscuous woman.

And also it means a prostitute.

seamus

I can quite honestly say I have never heard that before in my life.

If you google it, you get a big pile of results from Cork. So maybe ask on PROC

tbh

noddyflavin wrote: »

Does anybody know the origins of the saying; 'As wrong as Moll Bell'?...

Indeed I do. The story goes that two lads were bored in work one day, and one bet the other that he could coin a new phrase that would garner acceptance in 30 days. In order to promote the phrase, he went around to various websites and asked the question "Does anybody know the origins of the saying; 'As wrong as Moll Bell'?" in the hope that it would stick.

He lost his bet, unfortunately and as a result he had to sleep with his own mother. Back in 2012, this was.

John Doe1

tbh wrote: »

Indeed I have. The story goes that two lads were bored in work one day, and one bet the other that he could coin a new phrase that would garner acceptance in 30 days. In order to promote the phrase, he went around to various websites and asked the question "Does anybody know the origins of the saying; 'As wrong as Moll Bell'?

He lost his bet, unfortunately and as a result he had to sleep with his own mother. Back in 2012, this was.

I heard it was his father and dog?

tbh

John Doe1 wrote: »

I heard it was his father and dog?

that's as sick as two sick sticks ((c) tbh 2012)

TwoShedsJackson

Moll Bell was a woman, and therefore always wrong about everything.

CardBordWindow

Scholars maintain it means 'A Whale's Vagina'

pickarooney

Mal Belle was a highwaywoman in 1730's France, famed for seducing and robbing some of the most illustrious nobles of Aquitaine. I believe the expression arose from there.

prinz

pickarooney wrote: »

Mal Belle was a highwaywoman in 1730's France, famed for seducing and robbing some of the most illustrious nobles of Aquitaine. I believe the expression arose from there.

That's as disturbing as Dick Turpin.........................almost.

biko

pickarooney wrote: »

Mal Belle was a highwaywoman in 1730's France, famed for seducing and robbing some of the most illustrious nobles of Aquitaine. I believe the expression arose from there.

Wasn't that Ma Baker?

noddyflavin

It's definitely a saying that my Da said was in use when he was young. He's 70 now. The git../

Nodin

noddyflavin wrote: »

It's definitely a saying that my Da said was in use when he was young. He's 70 now. The git../

You realise that 70 is not past retirement age for those fond of winding people up?

AngryBollix

There were a series of Painting from the 1730's by William Hogarth depicting life as a prostitute. The protagonist (so to speak) is a prostitute called mary (aka moll). Her landing spot in London was the bell inn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Harlot's_Progress

Not 100% sure if this is the origin though

Interesting, this thread came up in a Google search when I googled 'as wrong as Moz bell'

Thats the way my Granny used pronounce it

She was born in 1899,so it's an old one

Mecanudo

There are two theories I've came across.

The first details a phrase in French to describe an evil stepmother as in the following:

"L'année suivante, son père s'est remarié faire encore plus une situation malheureuse pour Pauli qui visée à son père la nouvelle épouse comme "le mal belle-mère".

translation:

"In the following year his father remarried making an even more unhappy situation for Pauli who referred to his father's new wife as "the evil step-mother".

Later the expression passed into colloquialial english describing such a person as "wong as (a) moll belle"

The other theory relates to the song Ma Belle Amie as sung by the group Tee Set

"Ma Belle Amie" had been recorded on eight tracks in the Soundpush studio in 1969. Drummer Joop Blom twisted his ankle during a break, so Peter Tetteroo had to finish playing the drum part. Franklin Madjid played bass, Hans van Eijck piano and organ. Dihl Bennink originally played acoustic guitar, but Peter Tetteroo wasn't satisfied with his performance so Hans van Eijck, who had co-written Ma Belle Amie, decided to play the part instead. In 1969 the American producer Jerry Ross came to Europe. He was building up his own label, which would be christened Colossus. During his travels he decided to release Ma Belle Amie in the USA.

There were many accounts of how the signing of various Dutch groups -- Shocking Blue, Tee-Set and George Baker Selection -- came about. Journalist Oscar van der Kroon heard Peter Tetteroo's version some years later: "One of our fans from Delft took the record with him to Switzerland and had it played in a discotheque. The American record producer Jerry Ross was there at the time and it grabbed his attention. He came to the Netherlands and enquired about us via Jan van Veen of Radio Veronica." Because Ross insisted on recording Ma Belle Amie in stereo, Shocking Blue's Venus was released in the USA first. "When Venus shot to the top of the US charts we started to believe that we could be a success, too." At the beginning of March 1970 Henk van der Meyden announced in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that three Dutch groups had made it into the American hit parade. Ma Belle finally reached the number three position. It was the first time ever that Dutch music had achieved this sort of success in the USA. Hans Kellerman, director of Negram, the Tee-Set's recording company, explained why: "The famous beat groups that had dominated the American hit parades for many, many years had become so experimental that they were really only making music for themselves. Their records now missed that elusive, intangible quality that had appealed to the mass audience." The Dutch groups had a 'happy sound'; their singles caught on with the young public.

The Dutch group came from Flanders and their pronunciation of the title Ma Belle sounded to many English speakers more like Moll Bell. Commenting on this discrepancy - the record producer was noted as saying as saying as "wrong as moll bell"

The phrase was adopted into hippy culture and the rest is history.

buried

Looks like nobody heard of it back in 2012 either

dxhound2005

None of them was as wrong as Mary Bell.